How much RAM do I actually need?

32 GB is the point where most 4K timelines stop swapping. 64 GB helps if you work with many layers or long-form projects; below 32 GB you will feel it every day.

Does a bigger GPU speed up exports?

Some of them, up to a point — hardware encoders saturate, and beyond that a larger card changes nothing about export time. That is why the top tier here spends the extra on the processor.

Is fast storage worth it?

More than almost anything else for this workload. Every tier here uses NVMe because reading source footage off a slower drive is the bottleneck you notice first.

best pc foR video editinG

Timeline scrubbing and export are two different problems, and only one of them is a GPU problem.

The builds

Value

$1,167.13

gpu: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7600
cpu: Intel Core i3-14100F
motherboard: ASRock B760M Pro RS/D4
ram: TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2x8) DDR4-3200 CL16
storage: Kingston A400 240GB
case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR600
cpu cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 7 X
psu: EVGA 600 BR

Bottleneck: Intel Core i3-14100F

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Max

$3,030.71

gpu: PNY GeForce RTX 5070 Ti OC Triple Fan
cpu: Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF
motherboard: ASUS Prime B860-Plus WiFi
ram: Crucial Pro 32GB (2x16) DDR5-5600 CL46
storage: Sabrent Rocket Q4 2TB
case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A
cpu cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360
psu: Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W

Bottleneck: none at this target

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Prices are the engine's live totals including assembly and estimated tax. Fork any tier to change a part; the price and the score recompute as you go.

Why this is demanding

Editing punishes a machine differently from gaming: the processor handles decode, effects and the parts of the export the encoder cannot, while memory capacity decides how much timeline stays resident. The engine weights this budget toward CPU and RAM, and it stops adding graphics card sooner than a gaming build would — past a point the card is waiting on everything else.

Questions

How much RAM do I actually need?: 32 GB is the point where most 4K timelines stop swapping. 64 GB helps if you work with many layers or long-form projects; below 32 GB you will feel it every day.
Does a bigger GPU speed up exports?: Some of them, up to a point — hardware encoders saturate, and beyond that a larger card changes nothing about export time. That is why the top tier here spends the extra on the processor.
Is fast storage worth it?: More than almost anything else for this workload. Every tier here uses NVMe because reading source footage off a slower drive is the bottleneck you notice first.

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